Litigation, School Finance Reform, and Aggregate Educational Spending

In the past two decades, litigation in many U.S. stateshas triggered educational reform movements designed to reducethe inequalities in educational expenditures across school districts.This paper uses a panel data set across all the states from 1970–1990to examine the role of litigation and educational finance reformin determining the level of education funding in a flexible,dynamic setting. An important finding of our work is that litigationand reform have differential effects across the states, in somecases leading to increases while in other cases decreases inpredicted spending.     

Partial moment volatility indices

Forward‐looking partial moment volatility indices are developed using state‐pricing, called the bear index (BEX) and bull index (BUX). Using S&P 500 index (SPX) option prices, we find that BEX and BUX provide superior forecasts for the lower and upper partial moments of future market realised volatility, respectively. We examine the relation between SPX returns and changes in BEX and BUX at the daily level. Results are consistent with the volatility feedback hypothesis. Further, we show that BEX may be more suitable as the ‘investor fear gauge’ than VIX.     

Bank ownership and credit over the business cycle: Is lending by state banks less procyclical?

This paper finds that lending by state banks is less procyclical than lending by private banks, especially in countries with good governance. Lending by state banks in high income countries is even countercyclical. On the liability side, state banks expand their total liabilities and, in particular, their non-deposit liabilities relatively little during booms. Public banks also report loan non-performance more evenly over the business cycle. Overall our results suggest that state banks can play a useful role in stabilizing credit over the business cycle as well as during periods of financial instability. However, the track record of state banks in credit allocation remains quite poor, questioning the wisdom of using state banks as a short term countercyclical tool.     

Forecasting China's foreign exchange reserves using dynamic model averaging: The roles of macroeconomic fundamentals,financial stress and economic uncertainty

We develop models for examining possible predictors of growth of China's foreign exchange reserves that embrace Chinese and global trade, financial and risk (uncertainty) factors. Specifically, by comparing with other alternative models, we show that the dynamic model averaging (DMA) and dynamic model selection (DMS) models outperform not only linear models (such as random walk, recursive OLS-AR(1) models, recursive OLS with all predictive variables models) but also the Bayesian model averaging (BMA) model for examining possible predictors of growth of those reserves. The DMS is the best overall across all forecast horizons. While some predictors matter more than others over the forecast horizons, there are few that stand the test of time. The US–China interest rate differential has a superior predictive power among the 13 predictors considered, followed by the nominal effective exchange rate and the interest rate spread for most of the forecast horizons. The relative predictive prowess of the oil and copper prices alternates, depending on the commodity cycles. Policy implications are also provided.     

Philanthropic giving of China’s hotel firms: The roles of state ownership,corporate misconduct and executive remuneration

This study utilizes value enhancement theory, agency cost theory and crisis management theory to scrutinize the philanthropic giving (PG) of China’s listed hotel companies from 2003 to 2018. The results of dynamic panel regression tests reveal that state ownership (company character), corporate misconduct (crisis management determinant) and executive remuneration (agency cost determinant) are influential factors in hotel firms’ PG, but none of the value enhancement determinants can explain PG. Specifically, state ownership is negatively correlated with PG, reflecting low PG in government dominated hotel firms in China. PG is negatively associated with executive remuneration, indicating that hotel managers care more about self-interest than social responsibility. PG is also positively related to corporate misconduct, suggesting that hotel firms use philanthropy to manage a crisis. Finally, the lagged PG has a positive effect on PG, implying that PG is intended to avoid damage to social image and reputation of China’s hotel firms.     

Western sanctions—Only half the challenge to Russia’s economic union

Tensions over Russia’s recent actions in Ukraine and the Middle East have resulted in wide-ranging Western sanctions. An understanding the destabilizing regional and institutional effects of sanctions is, therefore, fundamental for policymakers on both sides. Data from 2007 to 2015 are used to analyze the effect of funding, bank ownership and credit quality across Russia’s wider Economic Union. Results enable systemic insights into an often opaque region during a period of crises and sanctions. Specifically we find that sanctions result in institutional illiquidity, limited capital market access and a rise in state funding coupled with bank take-overs by governments. Government Institutions exploit their access to state funding to increase market share but the positive effects are limited since there is clear evidence of ongoing poor credit management. An increase in loan loss provisions, lagged abnormal credit losses, suggest that until this second but significant ‘weak management’ effect is addressed, it will be difficult for institutions in the region to overcome the debilitating effects of sanctions.     

CEO compensation in EU telecom companies: Does the state design the right incentives?

This paper analyzes the structure of CEO pay in European fixed telecommunication companies, focusing on the impact of state ownership. Results show that, under the (partial or total) control of the state, the level of CEO compensation is lower and pay-performance sensitivity is higher than in privately-controlled firms. This finding suggests the state provides an incentive as well as a monitoring effect. However, when the state holds the majority of the shares, the pay level is significantly affected by the CEO power, suggesting that in these firms, CEOs are more likely to be entrenched with boards and succeed in raising their pay.     

Internationalization speed and subsidiary survival of EMNCs: The moderating roles of CEO international experience and state ownership

In the process of internationalization, effective management of dispersed location-specific knowledge is the key to successful internationalization strategies for companies. Rapid internationalization often prevents multinational corporations (MNCs) from absorbing and internalizing internationalized knowledge in a timely manner and achieving ideal performance. Compared with MNCs in developed countries, emerging market multinationals (EMNCs) are more inclined to implement a rapid internationalization strategy to enhance their own competitive advantage. However, their internationalization process is limited by their lack of managerial resources. Why and how would internationalization speed impact the survival of EMNCs Subsidiary? Using the survival analysis method and taking the Chinese A-share listed companies as empirical setting, our results show that the internationalization speed negatively affects the survival of EMNCs Subsidiary; Both CEO international experience and state ownership weaken the negative impact of internationalization speed on the survival of EMNCs Subsidiary. We argue that rapid internationalization underestimates the Penrose effect in the process of internationalization, that is, underestimates the managerial resources required to learn and accumulate absorptive capacity, and effectively manage dispersed knowledge. Based on the dual context of dispersed knowledge management and managerial constraints, this paper expands the understanding of the impact mechanism of internationalization speed on corporate performance, and also has certain guiding significance for the selection of internationalization speed of EMNCs.     

State dependence in access to credit

This paper investigates whether firms’ access to credit is characterized by state dependence. We introduce a first-order Markov model of credit restriction with sample selection that makes it possible to identify state dependence in presence of unobserved heterogeneity. The results, based on a representative sample of Italian firms, show that state dependence in access to credit is a statistically and economically significant phenomenon and that this is more prominent among medium-large firms.     

Post-privatization speed of state ownership relinquishment: Determinants and influence on firm performance

This study investigates the potential determinants of speed of state ownership relinquishment, measured by the annual decrease in the percentage of ownership by the government, as well as its impact on corporate performance. Several country- and firm-level determinants affecting the speed of the government ownership withdrawal are documented. Likewise, the initial positive relation between the speed of government ownership relinquishment and performance is reported. However, beyond a certain level, if the governments increase the annual percentage of ownership relinquishment, the performance could be inferior. In other words, a nonlinear relation with an inverted U-shape is detected.